♡ Cooked Zucchini! ♡

This is my favorite way to make zucchini! Hope you try it out :)

Cut up the zucchini into bite size pieces,
then just put them in a pan with salt, pepper, parsley (or your choice of herbs or spices),
cook until soft.

I like to have mine with tomato sauce! It's a great alternative to spaghetti!

Stay Healthy,
 -Taylor

30 Yoga/FItness Challenge Week 4!

Monday-
10 min. Yoga,
5 min. Walk.

I was out with my mom most of the day so i was walking around a lot more than 5 minutes haha.

Tuesday-
30 min. Bike,
30 min. Walk,
10 min. Strength,
15 min. Yoga.

Wednesday-
15 min. Jog/Walk,
30 min. Bike.

Thursday-
15 min. Yoga,
20 min. Walk,

Friday-
15 min. Yoga,
20 min. Strength/Yoga,
50 min. Walk.

Saturday-
15 min. Jog/walk,
about 2 hours of walking around in stores (probably more),
10 min, Yoga.

Sunday-
10 min. Walk,
20 min. Bike,
15 min. Strength,

♡ I'm Going Natural- Why + Q&A (ask me) ♡

Hi everyone! I wanted to talk a little bit about a big part of my life lately.
Over the past half year or so I've really been looking into natural products more.
Since I eat so healthy and natural I want to change to all natural beauty products as well. I am really passionate about healthy things so talking about this makes me so happy!
 I've been learning more about the ingedients in 'normal' products that can have some bad affects on us. All of the harsh chemicals and things that you can't even pronounce kind of scares me into not wanting to use those things. I want to use what is truly good for my skin that won't harm me.
Our skin soaks up more than 70% of what we put on it, so why wouldn't we want to use natural things? I know I do!
As I use up my non-natural products I'm replacing them with the natural ones. My skin is reacting so well to natural products, I've been using honey, green tea, and coconut oil for my skincare and it seriously clears my acne SO much more than the skincare products FOR acne!
Pretty much, I just want to know what I'm using in my beauty products, so I'm really trying to use up as many products as I can so I can get the natural things.
If you have any more questions on why I'm doing this or any questions related to this or not, leave them in the comments, I'm going to be doing a Q&A video on my channel if I get enough questions, so ask away!
I hope you join my on this 'switch to natural' journey. I'm so excited!
Who else is into natural products? What are your favorites?

Don't forget to leave any questions below for my Q&A video!!

Stay Healthy,
XX -Taylor

♡ Fresh Market Trip ♡

We went to the Fresh Market the other week, and since I love that place and we rarely go, I wanted to show you around.

Paleo Bread!

My first try at a Paleo recipe! I was very nervous but this stuff is great!! This is not my own recipe, I got it from pinterest, here is the link to the recipe I followed! http://goop.com/recipes/breakfast/paleo-bread

You will need:

1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour

2 tablespoons coconut flour

1/4 cup golden flaxseed meal

1/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

5 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

 You mix all of the dry ingredients together in a food prossesor, (I don't see why you can't just mix it by hand if you wanted)
Then add all of the wet ingredients to it and mix again, I had to scrape down the sides one time.

 Then just pour it into your loaf pan lined with parchment paper and bake for about 40 minutes or till it looks kind of like this.

And that's it! Very easy and really good! This bread is great for toast! Check out my healthy pinterest board for more Paleo or gluten free recipes!

Green Apple Sorbet (Paleo, Gluten free, Vegan,) with the Vitamix

We just got the Vitamix not long ago, It can make pretty much any smoothie or frozen treat you can think of! We got it at Whole Foods, there was a guy doing demo's of it and talking about it, this was one of the things he made, it is SO good! There's still some in my freezer! NOTE: I don't know how this will work with a normal blender :P

You will need:
1/2 cup of apple juice concentrate,
a very small palmful of spinach, (you can add more as you like)
1 tablespoon of honey, (or sweetener of your choice)
3 cups of ice.

Put everything in the Vitamix, turn on low 1, then slowly turn up to 10, then high. I needed to use the stopper to push everything down a few times, then just wait for everything to blend, then it will sound kind of different and it should form 4 big mounds of the sorbet on the sides. This took a while for me and I had to add more ice till I saw this. Then that's it. It melts slowly so it ends up for like a icee! But it is sooo tastey!

Paleo Egg Muffins!

Once again, I saw these on Pinterest, here to see where i got the recipe! I used squash in mine instead of broccoli but I think that's why mine sank down so much, they are really good though, I also added some italian seasoning and fresh minced garlic. I also only used 5 eggs, and it made 7.
You just bake these for 20 mnutes or so. I'm not sure why but mine did stick a little. :P But they are really good!

I just did another try the other day and they looked much better!!
I used broccoli and cauliflower!

♡ 30 Yoga/Fitness Challenge Week 3! ♡

Monday-
15 min. Yoga,
30 min. Walk,
40 min. Bike/Strength,
10 min. Yoga,

Total- about a hour and 30 minutes

Tuesday-
15 min. Yoga,
30 min. Walk,

From now on I'm gonna make my workouts more low key, before I using the timer on my phone to keep strack but it didn't feel very fun that way, so I'll just put my about times. like 30 minute walk. It's about 30 minutes but it could have been exactly 27 or 34. And I'll just add all my times for that day instead of having 2 yoga times or walk times or whatever I'm doing. I'm already enjoying it more! :)

Wednesday-
30 min. Walk,
5 min. Yoga,

Thursday-
10 min. Yoga,
25 min. Walk

Friday-
10 min. Walk/Jog,
15 min. Yoga/strength

Saturday-
5 min. Yoga,

Sunday-
35 min. Yoga,
20 min. Walk.

I haven't done near as much as I wanted to this week but I've had a headache most of the time from all the loads of pollen! :P

♡ Berry Lemonade Smoothie! ♡

I am always trying new smoothies (if you couldn't tell ;) and I really like this, It might not be to everyones liking but I enjoy it.

You will need:
1 cup of orange juice (or milk or juice you want),
1/2 cup of frozen raspberries,
4 strawberries,
and some ice.
(Once again these are not exact measerments)

 

♡ Tuna Salad Stuffed Avocado! ♡

I have seen similary things on Pinterest so I wanted to try my own Stuffed Avocado!

I made my tuna salad, (click here to see how I make it)
cut a acocado in half,
spoon in the tuna! That's it :)

I had mine with some salad and cooked carrots! Hope you try this out.

Stay Healthy
- Taylor

♡ Strawberry and Almond Butter Shake! ♡

A great smoothie for when you want something sweet!

What you need:
1 cup of almond milk (or milk of your choice),
2 to 4 strawberries,
1 banana,
1 to 2 tablespoons of almond butter,
and some ice.

(These are NOT exact measurments, I just kinda throw it all in there till I like how it taste :P)

Now just throw everything in the blender!

♡ (Paleo) Lemon Bars! ♡

Time for another Paleo recipe! These are seriously SO good!! I got the recipe here! 

What you need: (Crust)
2 cups of raw almonds,
1/4 cup of honey,
1/2 cup of melted coconut oil,
2 tablespoons of coconut flour,
2 eggs.

What you need: (topping)
6 eggs,
1 cup of fresh lemon juice,
1/2 cup of honey,
1/2 cup coconut oil,
dash of salt,
and if you want, coconut flakes for the top


For the crust:

Preheat the oven to 350,
Put the almonds in a food processor and pulse til you have small chucks. Don't over pulse or it'll turn to almond flour or butter,
Now put all of the other ingredients for the crust in a mixing bowl and well...mix!
Line a 8x12 baking dish with parchment paper and press the crust mix into the bottom (I just used my hands, it worked best. Because the crust was cold, I had left it in the fridge overnight before use and it was fine), I had enough of the mix to make a little extra, because I didn't want a very thick crust.
Bake for 15 minutes (or till the edges are slightly golden)
then just let it cool.

(Te picture is before they went in the oven)

 For the topping:

In a sauce pan whisk together eggs, lemon juice, honey and salt over medium heat. (I made sure I had everything ready before adding them in.)
If your coconut oil is melted go ahead and mix that in slowly.
Continue to whisk the mixture until it starts to thicken. This took me about 15 minutes or more, it should be like pudding that isn't all the way done, hope that makes sense! After that just take it off the heat and let it cool!
!

 Then pour the topping on the crust evenly and freeze until it's set (and somewhat frozen), this took about 3 to 4 hours for me.
After that you can move it to the fridge!

 And that's it, even though it sounds kind of complicated it's very easy if you get everything out before hand. It does take a while but it isn't hard and it is quite worth it! I ended up having more than I was excpecting, good thing to! ;)

♡ Herb Planting! ♡

I planted my Lavender and Parsley about a weekd ago, here are the pictures from it!

♡ 30 Yoga/Fitness Challenge Week 2 ♡

Monday-
15 min. Yoga,
15 min. Wake,
15 min. Bike,
15 min. Bedtime Yoga.

Total- 1 hour.

Tuesday-
20 min. Walk,
10 min. Strength,
20 min. Yoga,

Total- 1 hour.

I was really busy today so I didn't get a chance to exercise much :P

Wednesday-
10 min. Walk,
20 min. Bike,
5 min. Strength,
15 min. Yoga,
45 min. Frisbee (we did a youth group game)

Total- 1 hour and 35 minutes.


Outside activities-
I took the chicks outside for a hour, then planted herbs for another hour.

Thursday-
20 min. Walk,
15 min. Yoga,
30 min. Bike,
20 min. Walk,
10 min. Strength,
15 min. Yoga.

Total- 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Friday-
40 min. Walk/Jog,
20 min. Bike,
20 min. Yoga.

Total- 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Saturday-
20 min. Walk (with a little jogging),
20 min. Walk, (yes again haha)
15 min. Yoga.

Total- 55 minutes

Sunday-
15 min. Yoga/Strength,
25 min. Walk/Jog,
25 min. Bike,
20 min. Walk.
15 min. Yoga.

Total- 1 hour and 45 minutes



We have been so busy this week and crazy besy today so I haven't been able to work out as much as I want! Oh well, I'll hopefully get to do more next week!

♡ Easy Early Morning Smoothie! ♡

I love this smoothie because it is so quick and easy and great for is you are in a rush!

You will need:
Frozen peaches, (or whatever kind of frozen fruit you want, strawberries, raspbarries, mangos, ect.)
orange juice,
your choice of milk (I used coconut but most of the time I use almond).

All you need to do is put everything into a blender, measure to your liking, I put mostly orange juice, a splash of milk and about 4 to 6 slices of peaches, If you likee it thicker, just add more peaches, if you like it more like juice, add less.

And that's it! It's so easy, and yummy! :)

Stay Healthy,
- Taylor

♡ Our Cute Kittens (and Chicks) ♡

Some pictures of the kittens and chicks. :)

 

 

Now for the chicks!